Wheels for Henry!

Just a quick note to mention this amazing fund-raiser my friend Mary has organized to raise money for our van! Wheels for Henry is hosting an online craft bazaar with 45 vendors who have signed up and donated are donating a portion of their proceeds to the cause! Simultaneously uplifting and humbling to receive the support of so many people, many of whom I don't even know!

Approved!

Henry's communication device has been approved! Now we just have to wait for the funding to go through. Your guess is as good as mine as to how that differs from being approved, but I'm not complaining. Henry is so excited! We can't wait to hear what he has to say!

The DynaVox EyeMax System

This is the communication device that Henry trialed last month. He was able to demonstrate proficiency by telling his favorite knock knock joke! That simply means he showed that he was using the device purposely and accurately to communicate. Insurance companies want to see proficiency before they'll approve funding for a device. That's perfectly reasonable. The problem is that potential users often do not have the opportunity to develop proficiency and as a result may be going without an effective means of communication.

We were able to get our insurance to pay for a 30 day trial and lucky for us, Henry took to it quickly. If he hadn't it would have been really tough for him to make progress -- our insurance won't pay for a second trial and loaners, even to speech therapists, are scarce.

Have you ever mastered a complex skill in one hour a week or less?

Orange You Glad I Didn't Say Banana?

Henry visiting friends and showing off his eye gaze/communication skills by telling knock knock jokes. Well, actually the same knock knock joke over and over and over again (Hatch. Hatch who? Gesundheit!) Moments like this, after the initial thrill wears off, I have to remind myself that being annoying is an age appropriate behavior.

Welcome!

Tonight I asked my son Henry if it would be okay if I made a blog about our life together and his experiences as a kid with a significant physical disability. Since he is essentially non-verbal I offered my open right hand (palm up) for "yes" and my closed left hand (palm down) for "no" like I have thousands of times over the past several years. He wound up his arm to make his choice and gave me an emphatic yes!

I've long had conflicting impulses between preserving our privacy and wanting to share our successes and struggles with other people who may benefit from the information, whether it's identifying a useful resource or strategy for their own child or simply gaining a deeper understanding of what it's like to live with a disability. Today, the greater good wins. Tomorrow it's possible I may change my mind. In the meantime Henry will decide what appears here, as I'll be reviewing each entry with him for his approval.

What finally inspired me to start writing this was a recent conversation with a local journalist who is going to write a story about Henry and the high-tech, eye-gaze controlled communication device he will hopefully be getting sometime this summer (more about that soon). I was throwing out disability and medical jargon right and left and the poor guy couldn't keep up! I could relate; I too had never heard terms like "direct selection", "scanning" and "augmentative communication" until we began working with a speech language pathologist when Henry was 18-months-old.

I realized it would be nearly impossible to convey everything he needed to know for his story over the course of a couple conversations and that even some of my good friends (the writer was referred to us by a mutual friend) might not have a clear understanding of Henry skills and capacities. So, for everyone curious about Henry and how he is, the long answer is complicated, probably more extraordinary than you can imagine, and much more normal than you think.